Massachusetts General Hospital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center other research news

Two separate reports in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that mutations in the BRCA1 gene may play a role in breast cancer in the general population, not only in women with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital showed that among 30 women with breast cancer before age 30, 4 (13 percent) had definite, chain-terminating mutations of the gene and one had a missense mutation. In addition, 2 of 4 Jewish women in this group had the 185delAG mutation, which is prevalent in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. ...